Claude keeps forgetting the conversation: context window explained

What's happening

Claude has a finite context window. In a long chat, the earliest messages fall out of view and it appears to forget.

Fix it

1. Start a new chat for a new task instead of extending one very long thread.
2. Re-paste the key facts, constraints or code that must stay in scope.
3. Summarise the conversation so far and ask Claude to work from that summary.
4. Attach files rather than pasting huge text blocks so the content is retrieved more reliably.
5. Keep instructions at the end of your message where they carry the most weight.

Still stuck?

If Claude loses the thread within a handful of short messages, that is not the context window — retry in a fresh chat, as a corrupted conversation state can cause it.